This invention relates to photographic apparatus and, more particularly, it concerns a compact folding camera construction especially suited for the exposure and processing of two component film systems to provide a photograph directly available for viewing.
Commonly assigned, copending applications Ser. No. 747,899, filed June 24, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,912 entitled "WET PROCESSING WEB CAMERA AND METHOD" and Ser. No. 747,901, filed June 24, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,915, entitled "MULTI-PART CASSETTE FOR TWO COMPONENT FILM SYSTEM" disclose developments by which the two-component film system disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,563 issued to Edwin H. Land on Sept. 23, 1975, is incorporated in a cassette system which substantially solves the problems associated with handling, packaging and storage of the film both prior to and after it has been loaded into a camera for sequential exposure and processing of successive film frames. In the two-component film system of the Land patent, an image receiving film component, which is not sensitive to actinic light, is impregnated with an alkaline, liquid processing agent. The negative film component includes a web-like support coated by a polymeric acid layer, a timing layer, a dye developer layer and a silver halide layer. After exposure of the silver halide layer on the negative component, the two sheets are brought together in face-to-face contact as a laminate with the several active coating layers sandwiched between the supporting substrates of the respective components. The processing agent operates to transfer the latent image formed by exposure of the silver halide layer of the negative to the image-receiving layer directly behind the transparent support of the receiver or positive sheet component. The acid layer in the original negative sheet neutralizes the alkaline processing fluid but under the control of the timing interlayer situated between the acid layer and the remaining layers of the composite laminate.
The two component system of the aforementioned Land patent is both less expensive and, in many ways, superior to present commercially available instant film systems which rely on a combination of complex film unit assemblages and require precision in processing apparatus to achieve the correct spread of processing fluid, usually supplied in a rupturable pod forming part of the film unit, throughout the area of the final photograph. The major problems presented to a viable commercial system using the two component film system of the Land patent, lie in the need for keeping separate the positive and negative film components until after exposure and in the need for hermetically sealing the liquid impregnated positive component to assure retention and availability of the liquid processing agent until it is needed for processing the film system after exposure. These problems have been addressed and essentially circumvented by the disclosures of the aforementioned copending applications.